Monday, September 15, 2008

Kullu Nafsin Zaaiqatul Maut !

Brothers and sisters rahimakumullah, I am sure all of you are in a great Iman, greater than yesterday, InsyaAllah.

One Q:

Why are we asked and ordered by Allah S.W.T to do good deeds and not to postpone them until we are really ready for it e.g. when we are old? What is the big deal about ‘NOW’ and not ‘TOMORROW’ or ‘NEXT WEEK’?

Owh, two questions already. Nevermind. Try to think it as one.

Everyone knows why. But, why we still have an I-will-do-it-later type of habit, especially when it comes to doing good deeds? Some may answer“because it’s HABIT, hard to change. If not, it’s not habit anyway”. Yes, it’s true. But habit can be changed. Do you still remember when you were a small child? You always put your thumb into your mouth. When you grow older and older. There is no more finger-licking-good habit. Or you still do that now?

Coming back to the discussion. Two events are responsible for the above question. One, we do not know when Qiyamah will occur. Another is that we do not know whendeathwill come to us.

Death may catch up with us at any time. Who knows, perhaps this is the moment. Or, it may be much closer than we have ever expected.

These lines may be the last opportunity, the last reminder, the last warning before death comes upon us. As we proceed with these lines, we can never know that we will still be alive in the next hour. Even if it proves to be so, nothing can guarantee us another hour. Let alone an hour, not even after a single moment, is it certain that we will be still living. There is no guarantee that we will ever finish reading this post. Death will, most likely, come upon us at a time when, only a moment before, we never thought about dying.

“Say: The Death from which ye flee will truly overtake you: then will ye be sent back to the Knower of things secret and open: and He will tell you (the truth of) the things that ye did!” (Al-Jumu'ah, 62:8)

“Every soul shall have a taste of death: and only on the Day of Judgment shall you be paid your full recompense. Only he who is saved far from the Fire and admitted to the Garden will have attained the object (of Life): for the life of this world is but goods and chattels of deception.” (Aali-Imran, 3:185)

We will most certainly die, as will all our loved ones. Before us or after us, they will certainly die. A hundred years from now, there will not be a single soul we are familiar with in this world.

Endless aims pertaining to life occupy man's minds; to finish high school, to enter university, to graduate, to have a respectable occupation, to marry, to bring up children, to lead a peaceful life. These are among the broadest, most ordinary and most common plans of man. These aside, there are thousands of others devised to address one's personal circumstances.

Death is one of the few things in life certain to occur. This is a 100% certainty.

After years of hard work, a student succeeds in entering the university, yet dies on the way to class. Unpredictable isn’t it? Someone who has recently been hired for a job loses his life on his first morning commute to his work. A traffic accident ends the lives of a newly married couple on their wedding day. A successful businessman prefers to fly to save time, not knowing that that very flight will put a horrible end to his life. We heard all these so often. But the stories flew by just like they never existed.

At such a stage, plans no longer avail. Leaving behind plans doomed to remain unfinished for all eternity, they head for a point of no return-and yet it is a destination they never planned for. Ironically, for years, they spent too much time detailing plans which would never be put into operation, yet never gave a thought to the one certain thing that would happen.

How then should a man of wisdom and conscience establish his priorities? Does he have to make his plans for the one thing certain to happen or for something unlikely to happen? The majority, it is evident, give priority to goals which they can never be certain of accomplishing. No matter which phase of life they are passing through, they resolutely plan for a better and more fulfilling future.

This tendency would be quite rational, if man was immortal. Yet the fact remains that all plans are doomed to that absolute end, called death. Thus it is irrational to disregard death, which is certain to occur, and devote all one's attention to all those things which may or may not materialize.

This being the case, they can never become acquainted with their real life which is due to start with death. They simply do not prepare themselves for it. Once they are resurrected, they head nowhere but hell, a place specially designed for them!

The intention in writing this post is to make us ponder over an issue which we avoid thinking about and warn us against an imminent and ineluctable event.

Avoiding thinking about it cannot, by any means, provide a solution. Take some time to really reflect on this internal issue.